Art in the classroom

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Art in the classroom

As the saying goes, ‘Art is all around us’. In its many forms it presents fantastic opportunities for discussion, focused language work and skills-based activities.

However, this bottomless cultural resource is largely underused by many language teachers. In this article I will describe its place in the classroom by exploring the following areas and discussing some practical ideas

Why use art?

Potential problems and solutions

Three ways of using art

Conclusion

Why use art? Lessons based around works of art have many benefits for both the teacher and the students.

1. Responding to art can be very stimulating and can lead onto a great variety of activities. In its simplest form this might be describing a painting, but with a little creativity all sorts of things are possible. For example, the well-known ‘grammar auction’ activity can be redesigned as an art auction, where the students have to say a sentence about the piece of art – anything they like – and then the rest of the students bid according to how accurate they feel the sentence is. 2. Using art provides a useful change of pace. While many teachers use visual images to introduce a topic or language item, actually asking the students to engage with and respond to the piece of art can encourage students to become involved on quite a different level. 3. Incorporating art into the class or syllabus can take the students out of the classroom and encourage them to use their language skills in the real world. A visit to an art exhibition or an assignment that involves research on the internet can generate all sorts of language.

4. Thinking about or even creating art can be very motivating. It can take the emphasis off of accuracy and put it onto fluency and the ability to clearly express thoughts and ideas. This is great for students whose progress in speaking is hindered by a fear of making mistakes.

5. Responding to art has the potential to develop students’ creative and critical thinking skills. Students as low as pre-intermediate level will be able to read a short biography of an artist and discuss how their art depicts different aspects of their lives.

These are just some of the reasons why art can be successfully used in the language classroom. Now let’s have a look at some of the common problem areas and try to identify some solutions for these.

Potential problems and solutions Problem: As we all know, art is very subjective and therefore we may be faced with students who are reluctant to engage with the chosen examples of art.

Solution: Encourage students to either choose which works of art are explored, or alternatively ensure that a variety of styles are represented. Choosing art that has some relevance to the students is always a good idea, either from its subject matter or the background of the artist.

Problem: Students (and teachers!) may not perceive some art-related activities to be useful for language learning.

Solution: As this is our primary goal, it is therefore very important to structure activities carefully so that there is a clear outcome and learning point. For example, a simple discussion about the meaning behind a piece of modern art can be combined with input on functional language for giving opinions and agreeing and disagreeing. Meanwhile, other activities can be language-led. For example, using a piece of art to generate wh- questions which are then given to another pair of students to answer. Considering structure will also help to control the direction of discussion/lessons based around responding to art. This can otherwise sometimes be difficult.

Three ways of using art 1. Looking at art There are lots of different activities that involve students looking at and responding to pieces of art. For example:

A ranking discussion where students choose a famous work of art for the school to hang in its lobby or voting for the winner from the Turner Prize shortlist

Ask the students to choose a character from a painting or sculpture and write a mini-biography or story about that character

Compare two pieces of art with similar subjects, practising comparative language and adjectives

Ask the students to look at the website of a famous gallery (see some links below) and write a quiz about the works of art to swap with the other students to answer

Write questions to ask an artist or a character in a painting. Then role play the interview in pairs, followed by writing up a news article about the interview (using reported speech).

2. Sharing art

Ask the students to identify and bring in a copy of a piece of art by an artist from their country. Make a gallery in the classroom and ask the students to decide on a title for each piece of work in groups.

Ask the students to bring in a photograph they have taken and ask the other students to write a short story about the events leading up to the moment the photograph was taken (practising past tenses) and/or what happened after the photograph was taken. Then check whether their guess was right with the owner.

Get the students to bring in a piece of art that represents their childhood and ask the other students to form sentences about what they ‘used to do’ and/or write questions to ask the owner who brought it in

3. Creating art

Put the students into groups and ask them to create a piece of art using a variety of easily found materials – plastic bags, string, tissues, cardboard boxes – whatever you have to hand! Get them to title their piece of work and judge them according to originality, teamwork and use of materials

Do a visualisation exercise where you get the students to imagine painting the most beautiful picture they have ever seen. Then ask them to describe the picture to a partner who tries to draw it

Get the students to record vocabulary by writing the letters in a way that depicts the meaning of a word – this works best with adjectives. For example, ‘happy’ can be written in the form of a smile.

To get feedback on a course, ask the students to draw a picture in groups to represent how they felt about the course and then describe/explain it to you and the other students.

Conclusion As I hope I have demonstrated in this article, art definitely has a place in the language classroom and can be used in many different ways. It is a great resource for discussions as well as practising a variety of language. Activities incorporating art are motivating for students, provide an often welcome change of pace and can stimulate and develop creative and critical thinking skills.

Further reading Pictures for Language Learning – Andrew Wright (CUP) The National Gallery www.nationalgallery.org.uk The Victoria and Albert Museum www.vam.ac.uk The National Portrait gallery www.npg.org.uk

If you have any suggestions or tips for using art in the class you would like to share on this site, contact us.

Comments

Thank you for your article. I'm absolutely agree with your pint. I appreciate art very much. So that I think all teachers who have raed your article can use art effectively in teaching english. If teachers do your following they will motivate students in wide range. Their outlook will improve. They can know about art. I want to write about quality of lesson which you recommend. I think you covered all points of language learning structure. For instance, grammar, vocabulary, speaking, writing and creativity. In this method learners show the ability of them during the lesson freely because they get used to draw somathing, acting out and in some cases singing. I think pupils involved in all kinds of activity. I believed that learners can study with this method easily because when they create something by themselves they never forget it. I have one question for you. What about a role of teachers and their preparation. Thank you!

I'm very grateful for your article. It's very useful for English teachers because this method is effective in learning language through art. Honestly, I used to draw various pictures at school times. But, unfortunately, at that times English language teachers did not use art at lessons. That's why it was difficult for children to become creative and improve their talents in drawing to learn language better. Owing to your method, all skills including reading, writing, listening, speaking and, of course, creativity will be improved. In the future, if I will become a teacher, I want to use it by all means because I liked it very much! Thank you!